Confined by the Bell Tower
by frances janvier
Summary: Harry has been living a lie.


**Wordcount:** 1463

 **QLFC:** Disney Animated Movie - Seeker: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

 **Inspiration is taken from the aforementioned movie. It is not a complete AU or a complete rewrite. I'm going off of a synopsis as I've never seen the movie, so blame IMDB if I get anything wrong :p**

 **Thanks to Debs for betaing!**

 **Challenges by the Dozen:** level six [write six fics, each in a different genre] #4

* * *

In the pristine city of Paris, in the fifteenth century, a happy little family was cuddling together on a bed. They were the Potter family, and their son, Harry, turned one a few months ago.

The mother, Lily, was doing something to make Harry giggle like crazy. The father, James, was sitting next to them both and was also laughing his head off.

But happy little families cannot stay happy forever.

A pale young man strode briskly down the cobbled street, his eyes on his destination: the Potter family's house.

The door was foolishly left unlocked, and the man easily walked into their house. In his hands was a thin piece of wood. It was a wand.

He carefully tiptoed up the stairs and then stood right before the door to the bedroom. The Potters were still as unsuspecting as before, and they were still full of smiles and laughter. He gritted his teeth at the happiness of their family.

"Reducto."

The door and wall leading into the bedroom exploded into bits and pieces. Of course, the extra violence to open the door wasn't necessary, but it would block them from escaping the room.

At once, James and Lily stopped laughing. Harry, who was rather confused as to what was happening, kept on giggling.

The three adults stared at each other for a split second before the man raised his wand and pointed it at James. "Avada Kedavra!" he screamed.

"JAMES!" Lily shouted right after the man shot the green light at him. "You have taken my husband, but you will not _ever_ take away my son, Voldemort," she whispered angrily at him.

Voldemort merely smiled evilly.

Harry was still rather confused as to what was going on, so he crawled off the bed and went in the direction of James. "Daddy?" he babbled out, staring at James' unmoving body.

"Get back, Harry," Lily told him, trying to keep her words from shaking with fear. Harry obliged, and then turned his head towards Voldemort.

"Step aside, Lily, and you won't get hurt," Voldemort told her, trying to get past her to Harry.

Lily shook her head furiously. "I will _never_ give up my son to you, Voldemort," she hissed back at him.

"Very well then. Avada Kedavra!"

Just like her husband, Lily fell to the ground in front of Harry. "Mommy?" he said, crawling towards her now. His tiny mind finally started to grasp the implications of what was happening right then. Tears began to well in his eyes.

"Now, now, baby Harry, don't cry," Voldemort said with a smirk. "I can take you back to your mommy and daddy."

He advanced towards Harry, but something stopped him. Voldemort muttered some curses under his breath and disappeared without a trace.

Thirty seconds later, an older man came running into the house and the bedroom. He was the reason why Voldemort had disappeared.

His eyes softened when he saw the bodies on the floor. "Lily… James… What terrible losses…"

Harry noticed the new man there. "Who you?" he asked with eyes wide from curiosity.

The man's eyes widened when he realized that Harry was still alive. "I am Albus Dumbledore, Harry. I'm here to take you to a new family."

* * *

That was ten years ago. Now, Harry was older, and couldn't remember one thing about the accident when his parents died. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had told him that his parents had died from a terrible and sudden sickness when he was one, and then firmly ordered him to ask no more questions.

He lived in the very cramped space under the stairs of the bell tower. It wasn't very comfortable, but it worked as a living space. He longed to go and explore the city outside of the bell tower, but the Dursleys kept him confined. Plus, his cousin Dudley had told the entire city how absolutely ugly and horrid Harry was, and nobody wanted to suffer the wrath of Dudley and his gang.

He brushed a layer of dust off of his body and started to get dressed. Once he was done with that, he headed up the stairs to the top of the bell tower and looked out.

Just outside of the bell tower, a parade was marching past. Harry could faintly hear music from the parade, and the cheering of the crowd.

"I bet you want to go out to that parade, don't you, ugly?"

Dudley and his best friend Piers Polkiss had appeared behind Harry, glaring at him menacingly.

Harry hesitated before saying something. "Yes. Matter of fact, I do want to go out and watch the parade," he said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, but a little wee coward like you wouldn't be brave enough to go out, no, Piers?" Dudley said, starting to advance on Harry. Piers nodded and followed Dudley eagerly.

… _Maybe I actually will go out to the parade. I can prove that I'm brave._

Harry quickly wriggled his way in between the two bullies and started to sprint down the stairs of the bell tower. He paid for his speed by skidding down into the street, face-first. His glasses were broken again, dammit.

The nearest people turned to him and snickered. "Look, it's the hideous boy from the bell tower that Dudley warned us about," one of them said, and the surrounding people burst out into laughter.

Using up his remaining strength, which wasn't much, Harry attempted to drag himself away from the jeering people. _Maybe it was a bad idea to come to the parade… I'm not ready yet…_

"Oh my God, are you okay?" a male voice said to him, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Hermione, come here! Somebody's injured!"

"I'm right here, Ron," Hermione replied back. "Quick, let's get him to another street, away from the crowd.

Harry succumbed to the pain and blacked out fully as they started to lift him away.

* * *

"Ron, he's awake, thank God," said a voice. _Hermione_ , Harry remembered faintly. The two kids who had rescued him had set him to the side on a street that the parade wasn't taking place on. They had wrapped his face in bandages.

He fluttered his eyes open to find that everything was blurry. They must have taken his glasses off to help heal him. A brown blur and a reddish blur were hovering over him now.

"Er, I'm really thankful for the help you guys have given me, but I'd really like my glasses back," Harry said awkwardly. The brown blur carefully pushed his glasses back onto his face, and although there were a few cracks in his vision, everything was still much clearer.

"What are your names?" he asked the two of them, who looked to be around his age, if not slightly older.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and that's Ron Weasley. What about you?"

"Oh, er, my name's Harry Potter—"

"No way! You're _the_ Harry Potter?" Ron exclaimed, interrupting him.

Harry's hope sank. So they _had_ heard the rumors that Dudley had been spreading about him… "Yeah, I am."

Hermione's eyes lit up. "You're a _hero_ in the wizarding world, did you know that? Voldemort came to kill you and ran away for the first time! That never happens!"

 _Wizarding world? Who was Voldemort? What is she talking about?_

"I'm sorry, Hermione, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You've got to be kidding me," Ron said, staring at Harry in shock. "Don't you know who your parents are? Lily and James?"

"The Dursleys told me they were killed by a sickness—"

Hermione interrupted him with a distasteful sniff. "Your parents were some of the strongest witches and wizards ever. A sickness could never have killed them. You should be going to Hogwarts by now."

"What's Hogwarts?"

"Oh right, I keep forgetting you don't know anything about the wizarding world. Hogwarts is the magical stronghold of magic, basically. It doubles as a school for kid wizards and witches like the three of us. Voldemort has always wanted to take over Hogwarts for his own—Oh _shoot_."

"What is it, Hermione?" Ron asked worriedly.

"Everybody's at the festival right now and nobody is guarding Hogwarts. This is the perfect opportunity for Voldemort to come back."

"I'm certain Dumbledore has set up some sort of safety system, Hermione. Don't worry."

"I saw all of the regular guards here at the parade. The school is deserted." Alarm flashed in all six eyes.

Harry decided to add his opinion to the mix. "You know what this means? We have to go save Hogwarts," he declared.

 _I barely even know these people, and yet I feel more connected to them than I did to anybody I've met in the past ten years of my life._

"Agreed."

"Agreed. Let's go!"


End file.
